URGENT! Cooling compound on motherboard CPU pins

[thomas49th]

URGENT! Cooling compound on motherboard CPU/SOCKET pins

Hi, I've jsut bought a Q6700 and while taking out my old P4 3.4gh cooling compound has got onto the motherboard's CPU pins for connecting to the CPU. I'm sh!tting myself. What is the best way of getting it off. Should I get rid of the cooling compound - im worried about short circuiting my new, expensive CPU.

Thanks


EDIT: Board ASROCK Penryn 1600SLI skt775
Current thermal paste: some ebuyer cheap shit
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/72291 - i had just bought a new artic freezer cooler with paste on the bottom of it

 

[Szat]

You do NOT want to leave the compound on the pins. The compound is made with silver or some other type of metal that conducts electricity and it will short circuit. First, make sure everything is shut off and disconnected from a power source. Put rubbing alcohol on a Q-tip and wipe up all the compound. Be careful you don't use too much force and break a pin. I would suggest using a coffee filter to dry it, but I recommend just letting it air dry for a few hours because it is in such a sensitive spot. This should work out fine, but make sure you get all the compound off!

 

[GibsonSGKing]

Wait, why are there pins on it? There shouldn't be any pins on a core2quad, it should just have gold contacts on the bottom.

 

[Szat]

The compound dripped on the mobo not the cpu.

 

[GibsonSGKing]

The compound dripped on the mobo not the cpu.

aahhh, gotcha. I was gonna say, if you're gonna put it in a socket with pins, you have far more to worry about then the compound lol.

 

[thomas49th]

I was picking at it with a needle for ages.
put an old Celeron D in there and booted it up... without all hd and opticals, gfx card (have no onboard) disconnected for about 30 secs. Only had ram in Nothing happened, no beeping etc. maybe that's good. Shut it down.

At mo aint got no q-tips. Go some cotton wool and meths though I think. Would that help?

The thing that worries me is if maybe it gets hot and the compound runs between pins. Can it actually break my CPU/motherboard.

 

[GibsonSGKing]

I was picking at it with a needle for ages.
hi, just put an old Celeron D in there and booted it up... with all hd and opticals, gfx card (have no onboard) disconnected for about 30 secs. Only had ram in Nothing happened, no beeping etc. Shut it down. Got no q-tips. Go some cotton wool and meths though I think. Would that help?

The thing that worries me is if maybe it gets hot and the compound runs between pins. Can it actually break my CPU/motherboard.

It could short circuit, sure. I guess if you're really paranoid about it you could soak it in a solvent, but I don't know if this would damage the PCB or not.

 

[thomas49th]

what about meths? I havn't got any pure alchohol (except meths) lying around. I don't think i've even got any Q-Tips. If I get an running an old CPU fine in the socket would you recon it would be safe with the quad?

Thanks

got a 9v battery, coated a LED in a thin layer of the compound and made a circuit... no LED light. If i briefly (so as not to blow the LED, as not using a resistor) touch the LED on part of the leg which hasn't got compound on, it lights up.

EDIT: The compound isn't actually on the pins, as looking through a magnifying glass and using a pin I slowly got the buil off. Now it's at the base of the pins. Part of the socket is 'stained' with the compound, but the pins don't seem to really have compound on them :\

Hmmm
Thanks

UPDATE: Tried my board with the 2.53Ghz Celeron D with my ASUS 8800GT gfx card. Nothing happened. Put the 2.53Ghz CPU into a quick build pc (from parts i had) with an AGP grfx card and 256mb ram and it worked fine. Both had only grfx card, ram, cpu and motherboard. I've tried a PCI card in their, but no image - i didn't expect it to, i havn't been able to get an image on a perfectly good computer.

Should I send my board back? I might try cleaning it tomorrow. Ill try and get some ethonal along with some cotton buds from boots.

Just my luck

 

[thomas49th]

YO. Got it working. Use iso iso iso propeler something or other. That ethanol base thingy ma jigy from science dep at werk. Anyway weeeeeerks. Installed 64 bit on it, now just need to get wireless working :\

Thanks

 

[Tommy Boy]

There shouldn't have even been that much thermal compound on the cpu that it would drip off. A very thin layer is all you need. Are you the one who installed the old cpu? I hope you didn't put that much on the new cpu....